Meera or Mirabai as she is popularly known and referred to as, is considered as one of the foremost doyens among the saints of the Indian Bhakti cult or movement.
She is credited with the spread of the Bhakti movement in the Western part of India and is perhaps the sole female saint of her era. Many believe that she stood out among her contemporaries and even surpassed them in creative and devotional vigor.
While the eulogy of Mirabai is not the supposed objective of this post, yet some commendable mention of her copious musical legacy and strife against social decadence of her age is very much in order.
The burden of skepticism is about how her elevation to divinity rests on the crutches of legends and hearsay and has very little historical or social veracity to support it
The event in Mirabai's life of how she survived her relative's attempt to kill her by poisoning is stuff of extreme folklore and legend and often cited in religious and spiritual discourses as a great example of benign divine intervention in mortal lives.
One should take a look at the different versions of legends that describe her brush with poisoning.
One says Mirabai drank the poisonous potion happily and it had very little effect on it other than temporarily discoloring her complexion
Another says that when she drank the poison, within her it turned into nectar. In an another one it is narrated that when she drank the poison, it turned her golden. In the least colorful of these versions, the poison had no effect at all on her, and her life continued as before.
As if Mirabai's encounter with poisoning was not enough, she is also known to have survived other lethal attempts of her enemies like snake bites and a bed of nails.
While the credulous can marvel at these miracles and celebrate the glory of divine benevolence, the skeptic is left with the arduous task of deciphering the true sense and significance of these supposed wonders of devotional piety.
The less devout among us would be apt to wonder if the credit for Mirabai's survival is more due to the poison that failed to manifest its lethal potency, than the hand of god. Some plausibilities that may serve to explain Mirabai's survival could be:
As there are no credible sources of historical records that can serve as a reliable source of biography of Mirabai's life, it would be left to reasoning people to view this episode of Mirabai's life as something mythical and more a cannon fodder for religious and cultural superstition than a source of instruction on the life that Mirabai led during her times.
She is credited with the spread of the Bhakti movement in the Western part of India and is perhaps the sole female saint of her era. Many believe that she stood out among her contemporaries and even surpassed them in creative and devotional vigor.
While the eulogy of Mirabai is not the supposed objective of this post, yet some commendable mention of her copious musical legacy and strife against social decadence of her age is very much in order.
The burden of skepticism is about how her elevation to divinity rests on the crutches of legends and hearsay and has very little historical or social veracity to support it
The event in Mirabai's life of how she survived her relative's attempt to kill her by poisoning is stuff of extreme folklore and legend and often cited in religious and spiritual discourses as a great example of benign divine intervention in mortal lives.
One should take a look at the different versions of legends that describe her brush with poisoning.
One says Mirabai drank the poisonous potion happily and it had very little effect on it other than temporarily discoloring her complexion
Another says that when she drank the poison, within her it turned into nectar. In an another one it is narrated that when she drank the poison, it turned her golden. In the least colorful of these versions, the poison had no effect at all on her, and her life continued as before.
As if Mirabai's encounter with poisoning was not enough, she is also known to have survived other lethal attempts of her enemies like snake bites and a bed of nails.
While the credulous can marvel at these miracles and celebrate the glory of divine benevolence, the skeptic is left with the arduous task of deciphering the true sense and significance of these supposed wonders of devotional piety.
The less devout among us would be apt to wonder if the credit for Mirabai's survival is more due to the poison that failed to manifest its lethal potency, than the hand of god. Some plausibilities that may serve to explain Mirabai's survival could be:
- The poison served to or forced into Mirabai was itself of weak or poor potency
- The poison was never served to her and only symbolizes as an allegory for the kind of persecution that she suffered from her family and relatives
- The poison intended for Mirabai was switched into something else by her sympathisers or benefactors
- Before the poison could work its fatal effect unto Mirabai, she was rescued by her sympathisers or benefactors by gorging it out of her or serving her an antidote of some kind
- The snakes that bit her were not poisonous at all or lacked the venom required for fatality
- Before the snake venom could work its fatal effect unto Mirabai, she was rescued by her sympathisers or benefactors by serving her an antidote of some kind
- Toothless snakes were unleashed or thrown at her to scare and rattle her.
As there are no credible sources of historical records that can serve as a reliable source of biography of Mirabai's life, it would be left to reasoning people to view this episode of Mirabai's life as something mythical and more a cannon fodder for religious and cultural superstition than a source of instruction on the life that Mirabai led during her times.
Hmm, I believe that one cannot simply comment on such things. For example, the rumours that the British were using cow fat coated cartridges became the immediate cause of the Sepoy mutiny of 1857. Now, no one knows whether it was true or not. All that matters is that it spurned a revolution. Similarly, we don't know what happened to Mirabai. Maybe Krishna did save his devotee or maybe anyone of the aforementioned possibilities could have taken place. We don't know and we never might. We have to take these matters on faith or not. But what we do know is that it spurred the Bhakti Movement and gave it great impetus. Isn't it all that matters? Because the possibilities that you discuss are still speculations in the end, right? When Man invests power or attributes divinity to something, it becomes divines. Its the after effects that matter in the end.
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